“a natural resistance to the concept of giving over my innate right to freely transport myself,”
OK, but do you feel that way when you get on a bus or airplane that you don’t control? Don’t you freely choose to get on those system and trust that they will get you where you freely choose to go?
A driverless system could be set up so that you control and own your own robotic car. It drives itself when you choose to turn on self drive mode.
The advantage:
you get to your destination in twice the time.
Accidents are cut in half, saving the lives of people who would otherwise be killed — who live and go onto contribute to society.
Freedom is promoted since drivers gain control of more of their time. They are freed from hours of mindless waiting in traffic.
The system also provides an alternative to the government building expensive” high speed” trains as the article argues.
http://seattletheatrescene.blogspot.com/
When I freely choose to travel by bus, train, air, or boat, I'm still making a free choice about my mode of travel, and destination. In many cases, I can also choose which carrier I like best, because they're operating in a free market system for my dollars.
A system such as you describe, takes all that choice away from me. In your Brave New World, I will lose the last vestiges of freedom that I have to personally transport myself, unless you include walking by foot.
What's next? A government run, automated feeding system?
A driverless system could be set up so that you control and own your own robotic car. It drives itself when you choose to turn on self drive mode.
Such a system can (and will) be designed so that government operators can seize control of your vehicle at any time, whether you want them to, or not. If you're driving within a stream of cars that are operating on the 'system', you're not going to be allowed to break ranks and upset the careful planning of the central computer.
Such a system will also keep a record of everywhere your vehicle has traveled, and the identities of the drivers and passengers who travel in it. At the current pace of systems integration, it will also record hundreds of other parameters and data points that by all rights, should be private and personal.
None of this is consistent with the tenets and ideals this nation was founded upon, and neither does such a concept align with the stated ideals of this website.
I'm afraid you're promoting a patently Socialistic concept here.